This invention relates generally to drain fittings for shower stalls and the like, and more particularly to such fittings designed to facilitate the quick and easy installation of prefabricated shower stalls in buildings under construction.
While prefabricated shower stalls such as, for example, prefabricated fiberglass stalls, have come into widespread usage in new homes, motels, and the like, in recent years, because of their cost-savings advantages over conventional tile showers, the actual hook up of such a stall with a drain pipe in the conventional way is tedious and time consuming. As a first step in this hook up procedure, a plumber installs a vertical drain pipe in more or less the proper position for connection with the shower drain, with its upper end disposed just above the floor level at the shower site. Next, the shower stall is placed in position over the drain pipe. The shower stall conventionally has a drain "receptor", attached, which is a depending cylindrical fitting sealed to the bottom of the shower stall around a drain opening therein. The receptor normally has an inside diameter a quarter of an inch larger than the outside diameter of the drain pipe, and the latter (drain pipe) is hopefully positioned to fit within this receptor, ideally with a radial clearance of about an eighth of an inch all around, when the shower stall is properly positioned. The resulting annular space between the receptor and drain pipe is filled with a suitable caulking material or plumber's lead to seal the joint. All of this takes time, normally from half an hour to an hour, and involves work of a tedious and often frustrating nature, particularly where, as is often the case, the drain pipe is not properly aligned with the shower stall receptor.
In view of the foregoing, it will be apparent that the provision of drain means for prefabricated shower stalls that would permit the quick and easy hook up of the stalls with drain pipes, particularly where the drain pipes are imperfectly aligned with the shower stall drain openings, would be welcomed by everybody involved in the building, sale and purchase of new homes and other buildings. Thus such drain means would cut down greatly on labor costs, to the benefit of building contractors, home buyers, and the like, and would spare plumbers an unpleasant, time consuming chore to their welcome relief. No one, to our knowledge, however, has yet come up with such drain means. While certain types of adjustable couplings have been proposed for connecting toilet bowls, and the like, with nonaligned drain pipes, all such couplings of which we are aware have been fittings designed for installation before the fixtures themselves are installed, and all involve eccentrically adjustable openings of a type having no applicability for use with prefabricated shower stalls. See, in this connection, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,793,681; 2,121,984; 3,775,780 and 3,967,836, which show couplings of this type.